creative input anyone?

sjohn wrote on 12/30/2003, 5:22 AM

I have been working with Vegas 4 for about 6 months just converting home videos to DVD. Nothing spectacular at this point.. just trying to archive them all digitally first..Its been a great experience and I have learned alot about video editing and Vegas. (My background is technical so I am a little weak in creativity when applied to video..).

So after going through lots of old footage I would like to do a memorial video of my late grandmother. Something will stills, video, and old film footage. Does anyone have any suggestions or sample media that shows ways to combine stills and motion along with music into a nice smooth cohesive video? For example. Say I have a photo cropped and panning with music in the background and then want to transition to a short video clip and then maybe back to another photo....How can this be combined/transitioned to be seemless? Are there any good books on film making that may address some of these issues?

Thanks..

Comments

JohnnyRoy wrote on 12/30/2003, 6:35 AM

I just did one for my Father who died two years ago this November. (trust me, its hard to edit video with tears in your eyes) I had some footage of him walking barefoot in the grass with his pants legs rolled up. I took this and slowed it down and added a touch of white glow fx to make it a bit dreamy and used it as a background with a music bed for a set of photos that I overlayed one at a time in each of the corners (i.e., picture-in-picture style) in a repeating pattern. This has the viewer anticipating the next photo because they learn the pattern after the first few. In between major parts of the video I added a simple fade to black with a white title with black background and then a fade up from black. I used a font that looked like it may have been used in the silent movie days. I found that simple titles, cuts and dissolves keep the mood of a “trip back in time”. I used a cookie cutter fx with a feathered edge to make the overlayed pictures blend better. For pictures that are portraits, the oval cookie cutter makes a great cameo. Don’t overwhelm the viewer with too many pictures on the screen at once. Remember, they probably want to hang onto each one if them because its someone they love. Keep it simple and you’ll do fine.

...and don’t underestimate the power of music. Choose your background music based on the mood you want to set. You might use period music that your grandmother would have listened to or current music that reflects the mood.

~jr

randy-stewart wrote on 12/30/2003, 9:43 AM

Here's a link with a couple of examples. I'm an amatuer but learning. JohnnyRoy's input is right on. You can really get creative with limitless possibilities. Going from still to moving video is just a "transition" away.
Randy
http://www.cr-home-videos.com/
(click on sample videos, then select Grandpa's show, or the PACAF Christmas Show)

sjohn wrote on 12/30/2003, 3:03 PM

I appreciate your suggestions and mostly thank you for sharing some of your videos.. there were all very nice. I hope mine turns out as well os those..

Thanks again..

cheroxy wrote on 12/30/2003, 7:01 PM

I have collected a lot of little info into a word document that I'll paste below. It has a lot of other info, but there are many things that help out a slide show and video.

Effects

1. Use a slow zoom on scenic stills to make it look like a short film clip, good for intros.
2. Export a sequence, apply a paint effect in PSP8, BATCH render the rest, then bring it back in and dissolve it with the original footage. In a word...NEATO!
3. Have the transition followed by black video to do something like a barn door closing effect to cover previous video clip.
4. Have a still background and do PIP over it as ¼ or 1/3 of the total area.
5. Spin 360 degree for a picture of people circled around the camera.
6. Slow motion.
7. Fast motion.
8. Zoom in video or still shot.
9. Barn door transition to bring 2 sides of a photo together.
10. Text in bottom left for a title.
11. Skip-zoom-jump on still shots. Show the same still shot three times, each time closer.
12. Still zoom in to have it shrink away on top of another still.
17. “Credits” of who will be in or was in a movie. Show a 3 second clip of them with a black fade in and out. In between these clips show their name in white text.
18. Black background with video shrunk to 60% and made widescreen. Give it a white border and put it up higher than vertically centered to have some white text captions below it.
19. For credits of people show a short (~3 sec) clip of each individual with a fade from and to black empty background with name in white text in between fades.
20. Have the text spiral in the center to very small so that it looks like it is twisting away to nothing.
21. To get a still shot out of video, zoom in to the single frame you want, cut it, then to paste it where you want it hold down the ctrl v keys until it pastes it for a length that you want.
22. Move still shot around like my parents dancing from Cody’s wedding for theirs.
23. Time code can be placed using the plug in.
24. Use text sheer to “wiggle” text.
25. To create flashing text, create multiple copies of it and make them short so that it shuts off and on.
26. Black and white.
27. Black and white with one color still showing.
28. Still with starlight effect (plugin).
29. 2 videos side by side: 1 - w/ black background and slight space between and larger space on sides, 2 – one in bottom left with one on top right barely overlapping in the middle on their two corners.
30. Camera on ground with everybody in a circle above it, have it spin.
31. Credits on the left with pictures on the right.
32. Slow pan from far left to center shown in semi-slow motion.
33. Put a video/still overtop of itself and squish the top & bottom borders and make them fuzzy. Make the background lighter or softer. Seen on tour de France.
34. Separate subject from background in a still editor then animate layers separately
35. Put moving GIF’s into video
36. Vary the duration of the slides some, anywhere from 2 to maybe 5 seconds. Don't let folks minds get in a rhythm. I also vary the fade times. I think I average somewhere just below 3 seconds each.
37. Instead of a title to describe do an audio voice over softly to explain what is happening while you keep the main audio going normal.

KJerome wrote on 12/30/2003, 7:35 PM

I made a video of my family starting with pictures of my parents as children as early as the pictures began (2-3 years old) slowly stepping back and forth between them through time with music. Added my sister and myself the same way then our children. You could easilly drop video in between the stills. I have done that as a memorial to a friend and it worked out well.

The background music is very important. I agree with the previous post. Try several different songs until you get to one that draws emotion. You'll know when you find the right one.

Great list Cheroxy.